ProAudio Review - December 2008 - (Page 28)

studio review by Rich Tozzoli Universal Audio UAD-2 Solo The latest card from UA offers a serious processing boost to DAW owners with PCIe systems. What if you’re a DAW user and you’ve spent the last six hours working on a mix and your processor suddenly hits that dreaded brick wall? Do you remove a few plug-ins, maybe “print” a few tracks, or make sacrifices you don’t want to make? We’ve all been there. However, there are products available that — with a few minutes of installation — can not only get you through the power shortage, but also light up the entire city block. Universal Audio’s UAD-2 Solo is just such a piece: a combination of software and hardware that can jump-start most any DAW. Features The UAD-2 Solo is a small PCIe card that slips inside your PCIe-ready computer and seamlessly runs a wide variety of Universal Audio software plug-ins. Compatible with VST and AU DAW setups (RTAS support is thankfully around the corner), it supports sample rates from 44.1 up to 192 kHz. It’s ready to run on Mac OSX Tiger/Leopard and Windows XP/Vista operating systems. Fully compatible with the company’s UAD-1 card systems, it can be up to 2.5 times more powerful than its predecessor and up to seven times more when using certain plug-ins. As you would expect from the company with a 40-plus-year audio heritage, it includes the Pultec EQP-1A Program Equalizer, 1176SE Compressor/Limiter, RealVerb Pro Room Modeler, and CS-1 Channel Strip. Also provided is a $50 Universal Audio voucher, which can be used towards purchasing any additional UA plug-ins. Installation The rather large package comes with the UAD-2 Short PCI-e card and a UAD Installation CD-ROM, Quickstart DVD and Catalog DVD. I first watched the helpful Quickstart DVD, then popped in the Install disc, installed the Version 5 software for my Intel Mac Pro, and then slipped the card into an available PCI-e slot; according to UA, it doesn’t matter which one you use except for certain Mac G5 models. Within 20 minutes and with a quick restart, I was ready to go. While the computer boots up, an LED light on the UAD-2 card will flash red and green. It glows solid green once the computer is fully booted. Since this was my first time installing a UAD card, it gave me peace of mind to see the light on. I knew I was going in the right direction. In addition to the basic software plugins, an application called the UAD Meter is installed, a shortcut to which is installed on your Dock. When opened, a Control Panel opens with four tabs for System Info, Plug-Ins, Configuration, and Help & Support. The next step is to authorize your product. Simply go to the Plug-Ins tab and hit the Authorize Plug-Ins button. You are immediately directed to the authorization page of UA’s website. Then, within a few clicks, it’s game on. One caveat: I had to download the features a state-of-the-art, 32-bit, floating-point Analog Devices SHARC chip; these chips are monsters that can provide a serious amount of behind-thescenes processing power. They are not only more efficient than the chips on the original UAD-1 card, but they run cooler (no heatsink is needed). A core Mix Essentials II plug-in package is also provided with the system, which Rich Tozzoli is a producer, composer, sound designer, and the software editor for Pro Audio Review. www.richtozzoli.com 28 ProAudioReview | December 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.richtozzoli.com http://www.proaudioreview.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProAudio Review - December 2008

ProAudio Review - December 2008 Contents Technically Speaking New Studio Products Opinion: Mastering Matters Review: BIAS Peak Pro XT 6 Review: Zaxcom Fusion ENG Mixer and Multitrack Recorder Review: Sound Devices 788T 8-Track Digital Audio Recorder Review: Universal Audio UAD-2 Solo DSP Accelerator Review: Chandler Limited Germanium Compressor Review: RME ADI-8 QS A/D-D/A Converter Feature: Converters and Clocks: Engineers on Their Choices New Live Products Opinion: From the Road Review: Yamaha IM8 Series Mixing Consoles Review: NTI Digirator DR2 Digital Audio Signal Generator Review: Sencore SoundPro SP495 Audio Consultant Test Set Single Slice

ProAudio Review - December 2008

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